POISE

POISE stands for Personal Orientation to an International Student Experience. This project started as an HEA Change Programme which ran from May 2012 to March 2013.

POISE was established in the belief that all students at BPP University are ‘international students’ in that they are operating within a global context regardless of their discipline, nationality or status. The POISE Project seeks to acknowledge and reinforce this truly international context by providing a consistent, supportive and transformative orientation to study, as a core provision for ALL students across ALL programmes of study.

The POISE Project is part of wider student support across the University and part of BPP University's comprehensive system of pastoral care. Originally intended to develop individually completed personal audits based on Schommer’s Epistemological Questionnaire (SEQ) and related methods it was intended to then adapt and design a single instrument to guide the learner through a reflective self-evaluation of their epistemological perspectives and attitudes and approaches to study.

In practice the project evolved to be much simpler. Using the words and reflections of faculty and students gathered through a series of workshops in early 2013, a series of video vignettes have been developed as 'launch' points for students to ask themselves questions about their approaches to study.

Engagement with reflective questions is intended to prompt the student to generate their own personal ‘audit’ which they will discuss with their tutorial support.

Teaching staff (who are also Tutors) will also have access to POISE, ensuring that they have a common frame of reference. Faculty themselves may have benefit in being reminded of how students can sometimes think and feel about the learning experience. Animations make this a safe a supportive window into the students' concerns and hopes.